What a quarter it was for Apple in the three months ended in December. Thanks to the amazing total of 37 million Apple iPhone copies that were sold in the period, the Cupertino based firm's share of the U.S. smartphone market doubled in the quarter. According to research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, Apple's Stateside smartphone market share doubled to 44.9% during the three months and in the process, allowed Apple to overtake Android by the slimmest of margins. Android's U.S. market share slipped to 44.8% from last year's 50% tally.

Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at the research firm, said that Apple iPhone sales were strong in the U.S, U.K. and Australia during the Xmas shopping season. He added that in the nine countries that his firm covers, Apple iPhone sales continue to outperform sales of Android models. Motorola, HTC and Sony Ericsson in particular had a rough three month period according to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.

The research firm added that despite the high profile launch of the Nokia Lumia series, market share of Windows Phone flavored handsets remain under 2% in the nine countries tracked by Kantar. Despite high hopes for the Nokia Lumia 800, the model could not crack the Top Ten handset list in Britain by the end of Q4. Nokia had said that the model had produced the best first week sales figures of any recently launched Nokia phone in the U.K., but sales apparently cooled off quickly.

Sunnebo expects Microsoft's mobile OS to garner a 10% share of U.K. smartphone sales in the second half of 2012. He adds that the platform needs a few more successful and competitive handsets before it can challenge iOS, Android and BlackBerry in the region.

Although Apple may have been apple to sell so 37 million iphones considering the ifan "I'll buy everything apple" mentality but introspect Android phones are nearing the 1 million new activations per day mark so in about just over one month alone apples figures would be surpassed and not look as impressive.

Also these figures are the result of so many recent ifans upgrading in a rash flurry to the 'new' iphone as they had no alternative as the iphone 5 didn't arrive. Apple simply made huge profits off them selling the same phone.

Q1 and q2 are generally also the busier time of the year for android sales as the top innovating phones of the year are all announced at wmc and released soon after,sales figures surge across the board at this time for several new android models,eg. Sony xperia s,galaxy s3,htc,motorola etc.

@andro. If we have the "I'll buy anything Apple" mentality, what would you call your mentality then? "I'll buy anything android" mentality? Lol.

If android picks up its pace and surpasses ios in the next quarter, then so be it if it happens. But right now, ios reigns. So why can't you just wait and see when it happens? Is it because Apple's victory is so hard for you to accept? Are you crazy that Apple's success over android affects you so much? Lol.

A huge number of iphone adopters are new ones from Verizon and Sprint. So how can you say that upgraders are solely responsible for this huge success? Do you have a breakdown of ip4s buyers? I can site you several reports that claim that a huge number of ip4s buyers are blackberry and android users.

All qrtrs are busy for android. Android oem's release new phones every month. This month Htc, next month Samsung, the following month Motorola, and the next Sony, etc.... So don't say that only the 1st and 2nd qrtrs are the busier times for android. The last iphone release was 2010. The ip4s does not really count as a new iphone because it's just a minor ip4 upgrade. Even you fandroids say that it's no different from the ip4 right? So it is not a new iphone. Matter of fact, you fandroids say that the ip4s is no different from the very first iphone. With that said, there's only 1 iphone, and it's almost five years old, and it's still kicking a$$ :)

new iphone was launched this quarter
the prices of older iphones were dropped this week
steve job's death was a free ad for aapple this quarter
this was the fastest ever launch of apple's iphone this quarter
this was the quarter of holidays....

all factors that boosted the sales.

See what happens next. I Do Not See anything positive for them in times ahead...

It's both sales and market share in the US. China and US have the biggest consumers. So making it big in the US does matter a lot. Unless you tell us that the number 1 os in Cambodia is what matters more.

Yeah the iPhone sold 37 million. That includes the iPhone 4S, the iPhone 4, & the iPhone 3GS. That is all. Android is going to see an explosion once the quad-core phones start to ship from Samsung, HTC, Motorola, Sony, LG,.......

Apple had a lot of sales but a huge number of those sales were the older cheaper iPhone 4 & iPhone 3GS. There is going to be a lot of buyer’s remorse once people see how much less stuff can be accomplished on those older iPhone models, compared to the quad-core storm that Android is about to unleash.

@superfandroid. I thought you fandroids say that the ip4s is no different than the previous iphones. So why are you know dissecting them by models? Lol.

Why can't you wait for android quad core phones to explode before you brag about it? Is Apple's success too much for you to bear that you want to discredit it right away? Lol.

Also, it's been noted several times already that the ip4s is the bestselling iphone yet. So why are you crediting it to the older iphones? I can't believe you have not read those articles when you comment on every article related to the iphone much more than any iphone uses, lol.

I'm sure that google/android is not worried. But YOU definitely are worried :)

12.hepresearch (unregistered)

About four months ago, I predicted that if Apple won its lawsuits against Samsung and HTC, that iOS would pass Android in US marketshare in one to two years. I also said that if Apple failed to win against Samsung and HTC, that iOS would still pass Android in around three years. Either way, Apple would end up representing at least three out of every four smartphones used in the US by 2020.

Here we are... four months later, and still in the midst of the ever-escalating patent wars with no solid official winners; however, Apple is already in the process of catching back up to and barely passing Android. I thought that Android would have another six months of steadily beating iOS before Apple would start catching up again... although I am not really shocked, I am quite surprised and a bit shaken. Sure, this will all settle down in a few months and we will see where everyone sort of stands at baseline, but next year at this time Apple will be blowing everyone out of the water handily if the iPhone 5 ends up being what most people have already said it will be. Perhaps my analysis was (far) too conservative. I am not happy about it, but there is nothing that I can do to change that, either. Oh well...

Again, this is US only, SALES only for 1 quarter. This does NOT show market share at all.
In the world, android outsold apple by a large margin. And after the first quarter with a new phone + holiday sales bump is over, apple's "dominance" will be back into second place. Android's sales graph is a consistent uphill. Apple's sales graph is a large spike when the new phone launches and then it slides back down.

16.hepresearch (unregistered)

I understand the spike thingy... hence when I said, "Sure, this will all settle down in a few months and we will see where everyone sort of stands at baseline..." However, the figures are not explained by simple individual spikes alone. There is a growing baseline for iOS products that is increasing exponentially, and when taken in total with all "spikes" averaged out into the total for each year, we end up with a true exponential form... i.e. third year sales = first year + second year, fourth year sales = first + second + third, fifth year sales = first + second + third + fourth, and so on. In fact, the trend is climbing slightly faster as of the last two years of data. Android, on the other hand, started out in a super-exponential form its first three years, and has now leveled off to a linear increase as of the last year. while Android's sales graph would indeed appear as a consistent uphill, I doubt that it will steal away the increasing exponential gradient that now represents iPhone sales. Sadly, I fear that Android will end up being the "bubble", not iOS.

Secondly, I understand the "US only" part, and that is all I am talking about in my comment. I am not worried as much about the rest of the world at this moment, as I believe that the US, Canada, Russia, and maybe China and the middle east, will (eventually) be the primary countries/regions where iPhone sales truly lead by a large margin. Because of that, I have not looked a whole lot at international sales figures in other places. I don't plan on living anywhere but the US, either, so I am by default far more concerned about the sales figures here in the states.

See there is where I think you are wrong. In the rest of the world the U.S. is not looked at as it once was. Maybe in Europe the iPhone could sell, but in China & Russia they don't like the U.S. They will support other manufacturers like Samsung, HTC, Sony, LG and so on not the U.S.’s Apple iPhone.

Google is incorporated in every language in the world, so Google is huge in all those countries with the exception of China. (China likes control.) So Android will just be huge outside of the U.S. China's phones like ZTE & Huawei run Android & I doubt that China will let Apple hurt their thriving cell phones in China. Remember if Apple starts to hurt the Chinese companies, China will kick them out.

You mentioned the middle East, I highly doubt that they are lining up to buy an American iPhone. Not after all that is going on in Afghanistan & Iraq.

20.hepresearch (unregistered)

I certainly understand the arguements. That is why I said "... as I believe..." All of these things have yet to be seen, and are unlikely enough that I have been laughed to scorn for my views and often endured much castigation. There are other forums where I have been kicked out and IP-blocked for the opinions which I hold. It is often difficult to explain WHY I believe these things will proceed in such an unusual and unconventional way, and in such short order, and after having attempted to do so by mathematical processes, I now see that it is rather pointless to try any more. In fact, I'm starting to think that maybe I had better just keep my mouth shut on this topic from now on. It might help me to save what little credibility I might still have left, and help some people to be a lot happier.

Occasionally, there are those times in our lives where we must realize that we are, figuratively, trying to pass our head through a brick wall by bashing against it harder and harder... when we have been sufficiently bloodied, and noting that the bricks remain unchanged, it is usually the better part of wisdom to refrain from further self-destruction, abandoning the old attempts and moving on to other more useful work that will help one's self to heal and be of greater service to others. I suppose that, for me, this is one of those times.

@superandroid. I think you're forgetting that android is from the US. Same as winmo. Unless you are telling us that Samsung users don't already know that. And who are they trying to fool? Putting a Samsung name on an android or winmo device does not change the fact that android and winmo are still US. So why do they use US os if they don't like US products?

China will kick the US out of China? Do you know how many Chinatowns there are in the US. Now tell me if you know of any US towns in China? NONE.

That is because the U.S. is a free country & you can have a China town if you choose, just like in Texas & California you can have entire towns talk Spanish. In New York you have a little Italy, & Jewish towns. If there is a country or language spoken on Earth there is a town for those people here in the U.S. That is how a free country works, I am really sorry you didn’t know that. Hey this education is free of charge today 530gemini. lol

China is communist if you didn't know. The government is in charge & I will bet you anything that if Apple were to mess with their own mobile manufactures in terms of profit, China WILL kick Apple out of its country, because that is how a communist country works.

Also Android is from the U.S. (finally you are right) but the difference between Google & Apple is that Android helps sell the Chinese phones. (ZTE & Huawei) So Android can’t hurt China, but Apple can & if it happens, you better believe Apple will get kicked out.

Man for a guy that claims to drive a BMW, you surely don’t know jack! lol

you see anything that isnt total devotion to the worlds most greedy company as "hating". Some of us were just born to follow. Your not going to drive out to texas and drink the cool aid with your friends are you?

Okay, we get it. In that three month quarter, Apple sold a lot of phones. This doesn't mean that overall, more people have iPhones than Android. This is only new sales for the quarter. Let's see Apple sell more iPhones than this in the US next quarter. It won't happen. We've already seen demand for the iPhone start to drop off at our store, now that people aren't rushing to get their kids/spouses Christmas presents.

"Yeah, I understand that this phone is awesome and offers more for the money. But my wife/son/daughter said they want an iPhone. No, they didn't give a reason why. But it's Christmas! I can't disappoint them!

man, you are beyond delusional and lack basic perspective.
as I clearly presented, android phones sales are still experiencing a steady growth, reaching extremely conservative numbers of 55-60 million in the last quarter.
at the same time, the platform matured in it's latest iteration, receiving nothing but praises for the ICS. it's widely recognized as being overall superior compared to iOS.
and Google is promising some even better things to follow.
now let's look ahead for this year from some major Android players perspective.

Samsung - estimating it self to sell up to 120 million smartphones this year.
will release a ground shaking galaxy s III in April, just the time when iPhone 4s dust will settle down completely .
the phone will run highly polished ICS and for sure receive glorious reviews and record braking sales for Samsung.

HTC - still a smartphone icon manufacturer, and after learning it's lessons in 2011, will do it's best to perform better than ever in 2011.
will sell 40 million androids AT LEAST

Sony - this is the true upcoming dark horse. Looks well set to mark this year with some truly great products.
Will regularly sell significantly more android phones per quarter than SE did in the last quarter (7 million android xperias)

Motorola - a cellular archetype will become Google's own manufacturer. Enough said.
Quite possibly will produce the best phone this year - Motorola Nexus 4, running android 5.

Huawei and ZTE - anyone not taking those two seriously is seriously ignorant.
Huge potential, and will finally start unleashing fully this year.

LG - maybe they surprise in a good sense too. For sure they have all the resources and are technologically maybe even the most capable brand. In any case, will sell some good androids too.

And honorable mention goes to:
1. Panasonic. The biggest Japanese tech giant decided to tackle the market worldwide with some android phones, setting it's own goal to around 13 million units as a start
2. Asus. Promising some ambitious high end androids this year.

Conclusion:
Apple will surely break his own records with the iPhone 5.
But android will take over the world ;-)

To be honest Apple makes one type of phone, the iphone which broke record numbers and android has about a zillion different android phones and still cant top the iphone sales. The truth is with a company thats worth over 400 billion dead presidents how can you hate on Apple. I mean be honest with your self, if Apple would have never made the iphone can you honestly say that these other companies would of started making phones? of course not. Everybody saw and witnessed how successful making cell phones could be so like bee's on s**t, they all hopped on it. So say what you want about Apple, they rule the cell phone world, period. O, and by the way I'm a android guy so theres no apple fan boy here.

I'll be honest, I'm getting an Iphone 5, I was supposed to get an Iphone 4s but the battery sucked (everything else about it I liked though), got a RAZR instead (and i'm VERY happy with it!) apple keeps giving us iTouch users the short end of the stick (as to not interfere with iPhone sales), and I wanted some top notch hardware. I like Apple, Apples success is not a bad thing, apple being a TOTAL NAZI and trying to block MY options as a consumer, AND the complete PITA that we call iFans are a bad thing. Apple is not the best, there is no best, only whats best for you (in my case, both :-D), The iFans are my biggest problem, they are rabid, I've seen them go all crazy on a person who was posting logical points (a fan of both iOS and Android, like myself) Logic is lost on these people!
Apple makes a solid reliable premium product, but it is not without its problems (in my case, the horrible battery life) In fact, I find less wrong with the RAZR then I did with the 4s, I can honestly tell you the RAZR is closer to my "Ideal Phone" but ICS will determine if my phone after the RAZR will be an Android or not, They REALLY need to address the lag(Hopefully MOTO will be making some windows phones w/ intel processors by then, THAT would do it for me!)

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